What is this, I hear you ask. Some rice abomination that pretends to be a risotto? Trust me. This has the Boyfriend seal of approval, and him being the most picky eater in our household, that is saying something.
This dish is inspired by the food I had in my hometown, but I modernized it a bit. In particular, I added smoked paprika and a bit of chilli, both of which are not regularly used in the traditional cooking of my island. To put it mildly.
I’m afraid I am turning into one of those people that cannot write a recipe really accurately… I will give you some guidelines here, and if you can’t create the dish from this, you are not yet ready to cook it.
Red beef mock risotto
Lightly coat about 500g of stewing beef in seasoned flour. Sear in olive oil. Set aside.
Sautée two onions, three sticks of celery, and four carrots in extra olive oil. Add four minced cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of tomato concentrate, and continue cooking until the tomato concentrate starts to catch a bit at the bottom of the bowl.
Add the beef, a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a dash of dried chili flakes, a teaspoon of sweet paprika, four bay leaves, and a stock cube. Add to that one can of tomato and half a can of white wine (NOT white wine bought in a can. use the tomato can to measure out the wine).
Cook for about 1.5 h on low heat, until the beef is tender.
Add 200 g rice and cook for about 20 min, adding boiling water as needed.
Serve with some crispy lettuce, with a sour vinaigrette, because that is how my mum made it.